


So Instead of Getting Out of Bed I Wrote About Edelgard's Nightmares

by HoroshoujoAi



Series: Slow Moments Between All That Chaos [3]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Brief little mention of El's nightmares, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Mixing it up a little, Romance, the poor gal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-09
Updated: 2019-08-09
Packaged: 2020-08-13 23:13:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20182294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HoroshoujoAi/pseuds/HoroshoujoAi
Summary: Unlike my previous little drabbles of this sort, I wrote this late into the morning instead of the wee hours of light. I thought it would be nice to comfort Edelgard. A little different from fishing and cooking, I would say.





	So Instead of Getting Out of Bed I Wrote About Edelgard's Nightmares

Goddess, it was dark and cold. There was pain everywhere in her body, but most especially in her chest. Beside her she can see her brothers and sisters, the eldest consoling the youngest, if they could. But some didn’t even bother to move. Oh Goddess, they aren’t moving-

“Brother? Brother?!” Edelgard forced her body to crawl towards one of her older siblings, the one who would sneak off and eat sweets with her, the one who would offer himself before she went to the masked men. Now he was laying on his side, no movement, no breath, no heartbeat. No matter how many times she could weakly shake him, he wouldn’t wake.

“Stop that, El!” Her second oldest sister would say before going into a coughing fit, “He’s...he can’t…”

The doors open, and the men with masks see her brother. “Toss him aside, I suppose it’s Lady Edelgard’s turn now.” The way they said her name felt like the cool knife against her chest. 

“F...father...plea-“

\---

It was dark, and it was cold. Her body clinged to the sheets with sweat as she raised herself up abruptly. Her eyes made shapes out in the dark: the chairs, the books, the desk, the flowers her Professor gave her for her birthday, “Hand grown and picked,” she told her.

Her tears kept flowing, remembering who died that night. With her knees to her chest, she worked on steadying her breathing, fishing out a new uniform before heading outside for fresh air. It was always better than sitting in a stuffy room.

But where would she head outside? Perhaps she could take a walk around the monastery, but she didn’t want to explain to night patrol why she’s out during lights out hour, not with all the things that have been happening as of recent.

She found herself by the fishing dock, an all too familiar figure sitting at its edge, her coat draped about her shoulders.

“Who’s there?” She asked, her voice clear and empty like it would be when she lectured or critiqued Ferdinand. The fact that she could notice her footsteps from that far was rather impressive, even if Edelgard had seen that skill plenty of times on the field.

“It’s Edelgard.” The Heiress said, just barely above a whisper, “May I sit with you?”

Without missing a beat, her Professor motioned to the space beside her, “Nightmares?” She spoke, such a soft tone to come out of someone supposedly known as “The Ashen Demon” in the world beyond the monastery walls. Edelgard sat beside her Professor, noting her bare legs dangling off the dock. 

“Nightmares.” Edelgard affirmed, her hands tightly interwoven as the mere mention sent her racing back to a dark room where her loved ones slowly were deprived of-

“I see.” Byleth’s voice brought her back, though. It always seemed to pull her head away from the dark crevices she always seemed to fall to. Her hand slithered from her lap, onto Edelgard’s hands, “Are you alright?”

“As alright as I’m allowed to be.” Edelgard spoke, her eyes trailing to the warmth of her Professor’s hand on hers. 

“Uh, sorry, is that too much?” Her hand lifted immediately from Edelgard’s, and in the flurry, the Heiress could see the black and simple nightgown her Professor was wearing. 

“It’s fine, please-” she grabbed for her Professor’s hand, more out of instinct than consciously, “...please…”

Oh, Goddess, she’s making a bit of a fool of herself. There was no more reservation holding her back. She doubted her Professor would see her as the Heiress to the Throne anymore, but a girl, scared to death by nightmares that plague her.

Byleth’s eyes were blank, but they reflected the moonlight all too perfectly. Slowly retrieving her hand from Edelgard’s grasp, she opted to wrap it around the shoulders of her student, bringing her close enough for her to rest her head on her shoulders with a tight squeeze.

The warm and welcoming touch came as a surprise to Edelgard. It was the same touch that she felt when Byleth guided her hands with her own, but there was something different.

“The weight you bear is mine too, as your teacher,” she spoke, “Should the nightmares persist, I beg you to find me.”

“...if that is alright with you, Professor.” Edelgard sighed into the embrace, taking in the warmth and smell of her Professor. She smelled like the flowers in the greenhouse, the sun against skin. She was comforting and warm, despite her usual cold expression.

Edelgard allowed herself a shaky laugh, “It would seem that you do have a heart after all, Professor,”

“Indeed, I have a heart,” She replied, I just don’t have a heartbeat.”

“Again with the jokes, hm? I’m not as gullible as other students.”

“Do the other students think I’m joking?” She asked. Edelgard raised her head to see her Professor’s face. Surely enough, it was a blankly inquisitive stare...a beautiful one at that, Edelgard found herself absently thinking.

“W-well, it just doesn’t seem possible.”

After a moment of thought, Byleth brought Edelgard’s ear close to her chest. “Professor, wait-”

She listened intently to hear the beat of a heart. Surely enough, no such beat came.

“Oh my goddess…” 

“I do not jest about such matters, Edelgard,” Byleth allowed her student to straighten up, “I really don’t have a heartbeat.”

“I...has it always been like that?”

“Since I was born.” She shrugged, “Don’t start telling the students it’s true now, I don’t want to actually worry them.”

“Well, they would have to ask me how I know, so…”

“Hm…” Byleth chuckled, “I suppose it’d be scandalous to know a teacher had been spending time with a student at an hour like this.”

“I suppose it would,” Edelgard nodded, cheeks lightly flushed at the thought that, indeed, they’re together at quite a late hour, “I...thank you, Professor.”

“...?”

“For...for being more than just a Professor, but almost...a friend, if I may say. I admit, I depend on you more than an Empress ought.”

“Simply because you are to be an Empress doesn’t mean you can’t rely on others, Edelgard.” Byleth spoke, “You’re human, above all else. You laugh, you cry, you love just like anyone else. And just like anyone else, you could always do with someone to lean on.”

“...I suppose that’s a case to be made.” She spoke, leaning on her Professor once more, “I suppose that means you cry and love just like anyone else? I have seen you laugh already.”

She could feel her Professor’s shoulders tense, “I suppose I do, but that’s for me to keep to myself, like one would.”

“Fair enough, Professor, fair enough.”

When Edelgard returned to her room after greeting her Professor a goodnight, she found that, as usual, sleep would avoid her after a nightmare. But her thoughts didn’t linger on the pain she could still remember on her chest like it usually did, but the racing of her heart when she spoke to her Professor, or the heat of her cheeks when she saw her smile. She recalled a conversation with Dorothea, a while back. She remembered she said she didn’t have time for romance to bloom. 

She supposed that she was wrong, and laughed idly to herself in that realization.


End file.
